Toy Soldier Collector Magazine

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Treasure awaits

Regular contributor Dennis Diamond returns this issue with some hints and tips on picking up good quality old toy soldiers for reasonable prices

Being an avid toy soldier collector, seasoned or recently converted, you will want to expand your miniature empire and swell the ranks of your 54mm plastic or lead figures. Nowadays it can be an expensive passion and you might think you need to be a hefty lottery winner in order to regularly feed the bug which you have caught. Just as when you were a child you look on longingly at the new releases in the ‘toy shop’ window, but parents are no longer by your side for you to beg pleadingly for them to quell that rumbling of green eyed want. So how do you meet the need? Rob a bank, wait for an inheritance, or like most of us mere penniless mortals you simply buy within your means, though this entails going without, but hey that’s life! One solution is to seek out those people who do not value toy soldiers as highly as us fanatics. Incidentally what is the collective term for toy soldier collectors, is there one, if there is I have never heard it, unless ‘Anorak‘ or ‘Nerd’ count, a couple of disparaging remarks I, and I am sure many of you, have endured at some time from friends and family alike, who snigger at a grown man (or woman) handling what they perceive as a childish toy.

Where are these unenlightened people who are willing to be relieved of their precious 54mm possessions? Car boot sales and charity shops are the most obvious first port of call. Both of these venues can be heartbreaking for the overzealous collector who rushes in expecting to find a treasure trove on every visit. Patience is the name of the game. All comes to he who waits as they say. Car boot sales (or flea markets to our American friends) often mean an early start, usually on a Sunday morning when traditionally most of us have a well earned lie in. When that alarm clock goes off at six, that’s A.M. you will wonder, with your family, if you have lost your sanity, equally so when you trudge around the car boot site rummaging for an hour or two through a multitude of peoples old tat, why you bother. You have to be fairly thick skinned too. More than once I’ve been delving through a box of children’s toys only pausing when you become aware that the person beside you is about eight years old and giving you one of those wide eyed looks which say ‘Why are you, an adult, looking in here?‘ Then on a rare occasion just when you had given up all hope of ever finding anything worth a mention you strike gold! Well, more likely plastic or lead.

Look in the plastic carrier bags which are tossed uncaringly by the stall holder under the pasting table, check those rusting biscuit tins, for in them could just remotely be what your heart seeks. You bend, ready to explore, mind racing, sweat breaking across your fevered brow. Ninety nine times out of a hundred it will be grannies old buttons or grandpa’s rusty nails but that other one per cent is pure magic. Opening a tin which has been sealed for possibly thirty years or more releases a mesmerising waft of warm plastic, that smell which you recall from childhood when you used to play with your own miniature comrades. Your fingers touch the contents and you tingle a warm glow of pleasure, but hide that excitement, keep it locked inside, for the deal has not been done. Examine with a general eye the condition, age and basic value and then decide what your price limit will be. If the stall holder is not a ‘Green’, that is a one off naïve car boot seller, but a seasoned and hardened dealer who will assess you by your level of enthusiasm and knowledge of your subject, then don’t say to him ‘How much do you want for this tin of Britain’s Swoppets ‘ because he will bump the price up. The best advice I was ever given on buying second hand items was that a thing is worth as much as you are prepared to pay for it. Whilst you do not want to be ripped off, equally don’t abuse the seller. Most of us know the value of toy soldiers, based on age and condition, it’s something inherent in us when we start collecting in earnest. I have a hard and fast rule, when I ask ‘How much?‘ when I hear the amount I never haggle if I know I have a good deal. I will only haggle if I know I am being conned or that the dealer is saving for a holiday in the Bahamas!

One of my best purchases at a car boot sale was about four years ago at a small venue in Wareham near to where I then lived in Dorset. Some ‘Greens’ had just pulled in, late in the day, and few people paid any attention, but lucky for me that I did. From out of the car boot a plastic ice cream container was placed on the table, the lid opened to reveal not ice cream but a precious treat, vintage Britain’s Swoppets, all cowboys and Indians, chock a block with the little beauties! Then came the question, ‘How much?‘, ‘A pound for the lot?‘ They asked nervous as baby rabbits leaving the burrow for the first time. I could have haggled but not this time, not when I knew the value set before me. Taking them back home I discovered the figures were in remarkable condition, weapons still intact, barely a scratch or a paint chip. At a guess I would say at present values I had £65 worth of vintage toy soldiers. On proudly telling relatives this fact one asked if I felt guilty on ‘ripping off‘ the seller. I had paid what was asked for. If you feel squeamish about this method of purchasing toy soldiers then car boot sales will be off your shopping trips!

Charity shops are a slightly more difficult source for acquiring toy soldiers as most shops have someone who inspects all incoming donated goods with an eye to value, and anything financially ‘tasty’ will be sent for auction. From time to time a few bits sneak under the wire and are put on general display. A couple of years ago my partner was shopping in Dorchester and she gave me a call telling me that a charity shop had a huge box of old toy soldiers; though not an expert she has an eye for a bargain and so alerted me. I asked her how many soldiers there were ‘Hundreds’ came the mouth watering reply. Condition? ‘Various‘ and price? ‘Ten for fifty pence. ‘Hmmmm, without seeing them was it worth a gamble? So I asked my partner to see what the shop wanted for the lot. In the end they were only too willing to let them go for £5. When she got home it was ‘Hello dear, where are they?!‘ It was like Christmas and birthday rolled into one. Britain’s, Cherilea, Charbens, Herald, Timpo, to name but a few, about three hundred in total! The majority were 1950’s and 60’s. Some were badly damaged, heads and weapons chewed (don’t some people feed their kids?) others had survived the ravages of abusive children better, but to be fair these were toy soldiers, they had to take a lot of punishment. I have no idea what the total value would be but I have kept those that fit well within my own collection and sold others that do not.

Finding modern toy soldiers at car boot sales or charity shops is virtually impossible. Del Prado is the most common to be unearthed. I believe the reason behind this is that many are bought as impulse buys due to television advertising, the appeal soon wears off and then they are discarded. Cheap and poorly made toy soldiers, or what I refer to as Blobbies can be found in abundance, these are fine for kids to play with but have no appeal to me as a collector. It will be a very lucky toy soldier seeker who finds King & Country going for a song at a car boot sale, but you never know what might turn up so good hunting and do remember fight fair as you represent a noble band of brothers, don’t give us a bad name. I have seen two toy soldier collectors almost coming to blows at a boot sale in Yeovil when they pounced simultaneously on a box of 54mm goodies. Ask yourself is it worth behaving like spoilt brats? I guess that bug that eats at us makes us behave in different ways, and while I love collecting toy soldiers I truly hope I never find myself sinking so low as to disgrace the hobby. I will continue to purchase new releases as and when finances are in accord and the alarm clock will still alert me to potential bargains. I could, I suppose, always resort to going online but that’s another story altogether and until then wait and dream, dream and wait.

Date Published Thu, 05/29/2008 - 12:03
Author: Dennis Diamond

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